


Ghosts of Christmas Present

by croissantkatie



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28091181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/croissantkatie/pseuds/croissantkatie
Summary: Ten gifts Alison gave at Christmas, and one she received.
Relationships: Alison/Mike (Ghosts TV 2019)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Ghosts of Christmas Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Small_Hobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/gifts).



> With thanks to i for the beta, and c and j for romance novel advice.

Alison gets Robin a book of sudoku puzzles for Christmas. He loves a puzzle but it took a little while to find the right one for him. Chess requires two people which sometimes proves a bit of a problem. Alison tries her best, but she’s not got a great head for the game. And there’s the slight problem that she has a whole life to live and as such can’t spend all day playing with him. They’d tried crosswords for a while but that had proven a tad challenging. Robin is incredibly intelligent, but he’s not the best with words. Or at least, not words as they’re used nowadays. Language has evolved an awful lot since he was alive. Numbers have stayed the same. Well, apart from the concept of zero. That hadn’t exactly been around, but Alison had shown him a fascinating youtube video about it. He’s allowed back on youtube now that Mike has done something to the algorithm. Robin’s not entirely sure what that means but he’s getting far fewer recommended videos with titles like “the shocking truth behind the government poisoning toothpaste!” and the like. The physical act of holding a pencil had proven a bit of a problem, but Robin’s good at keeping the numbers in his head. He remembers them and in the late afternoon, with her last proper cup of tea for the day, Alison will come and sit with him to fill in the answers.

The Captain had been incredibly easy - more war documentaries (thank you Oxfam!). She specifically gets him a boxset made by the BBC - she doesn’t know much about World War II, but she does know not to trust anything put out by the History Channel. She doesn’t want another conspiracy theory problem in the house.

Alison had picked up a pile of secondhand romance novels for Kitty. By this point, she’s got a pretty good idea of what she likes (lots of the purple Mills and Boon, some Georgette Heyer but she sometimes finds those a bit tame). She doesn’t mind turning the pages when Kitty needs it, watching her face as she reads them is more than enough of a reward. The romance novels are at least half for Lady B as well, although she thinks Alison doesn’t know she reads them as well. The first few times Alison had passed it off as general curiosity, but by now she’s fairly certain Fanny actually enjoys them. She’d picked her up a couple of George Eliot novels too though, so she can keep up appearances and a sense of plausible deniability.

She had been able to think of multiple things Julian would enjoy, none of which she was willing to purchase. In the end she settled on getting him some mugs specifically for him to try to break (once again, courtesy of the charity shop). She might end up regretting it later when she inevitably has to clean up the resulting mess.

Her first thought for Thomas had been a collection of poetry or something, but thinking about it a bit, she’s fairly sure he’d turn his nose up at anything and proceed to recite his own poetry which wouldn’t be ideal. As much as he’s grown on her, she really has no desire to listen to more of his poetry; the previous experience had been more than enough. She’d considered getting him some period dramas on DVD or something, but dismissed that as well on the basis that he would just criticise it as inaccurate. She ends up getting him an audio adaptation of Hamlet in the end on the basis that he can’t complain about historical inaccuracies he can’t see. Plus it’s bloody long and should keep him quiet for a good while.

She’d had trouble thinking about what to get Mary. Alison knows what she doesn’t like (mainly burning and the smell of burning). In the end, she’d thought back to the wedding and how Mary had been so insistent on the cake throwing at the wedding, and had decided to do some research into old Christmas traditions. Alison appoints her the Queen of Misrule and lets her oversee the party games. Mary spends a lot of time laughing, delighting in being in charge for a change. Some modifications have to be made for the ghosts’ incorporeality, but they work it out. Mostly.

She doesn’t really know the plague ghosts well enough to get them anything particularly personal. They’ve refused to come back upstairs since they encountered Julian. In the end, she’d settled on cleaning the place up a bit. They may be ghosts, but no one likes being surrounded by dust. And while the archaeologists had done their best to clear up after themselves, it had still been a bit of a mess. She’d ended up hanging some dried herbs from the ceiling and had also put up a green garland thing she’d picked up. It had come from the Christmas decorations section but she thinks it will be appropriate enough to have up all year round. Her first thought had been to get them a lovely string of fairy lights but had decided something which didn’t need battery power would probably be better.

Pat had been the hardest though. All the things she had thought of at first had required slightly more interaction with the physical world than Pat was capable of. He was such a doing person, someone who always wanted to be engaged in an activity, that it had taken some thinking. She had been tempted to get him the reboot of Doctor Who on DVD, but a lot of the episodes are on iPlayer most of the time and it would have felt a bit like cheating. She’d ended up getting him a bunch of action flicks which had come out since the 80s. He’s been impressed by how special effects have developed since he was alive, so she gets him some things with cool stunts and action sequences and aliens and the like. 

She tries every year not to worry about what to get Mike but she always ends up failing. She knows he’ll love whatever she gets him, but she still worries. This year she eventually settled on a power tool with a variety of different attachments. She’s sure he will wreak merry havoc on Button House with it. She’s looking forward to watching him grin maniacally as he drills through more walls.

***

Mike had felt bloody stupid explaining his plan to an empty room, even one which Alison had assured him was full of ghosts. But it’s worth it for Alison’s smile when he puts on the backing music to Deck the Halls and they all start singing. Or at least he hopes they’re all singing. He’d feel a bit of an idiot just singing by himself, but singing with the ghosts, even if he can’t hear them, is all right.


End file.
